about a month ago our local Waitrose ran out of their own-brand maple syrup - which had been about £3.50 per bottle - and they told me there was some kind of delay with that product in particular... when it came back in stock, it had gone up to £4.99.

I think there must have been some kind of amazing increase in raw material and transport costs for the prices to have shot up so suddenly... I don't know what maple trees require - maybe some kind of expensive fertilisers or something... and then the costs of importing it from Canada